A14. What is the status of the 2008 ILO Guidelines for flag State inspections and the ILO Guidelines for port State control officers?

The two sets of Guidelines, initially adopted in 2008, the Guidelines for flag State inspections under the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, 18 and the Guidelines for port State control officers carrying out inspections under the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, 19 provide authoritative guidance since they were prepared by international tripartite meetings of experts to assist countries to implement Title 5 of the MLC, 2006. But they do not have any special legal status. They should not be confused with the Guidelines found in Part B of the Code of the MLC, 2006, which must be given due consideration by ratifying countries [see A12.].

International guidelines, as well as the related national flag State inspection and certification systems and national guidelines for flag State inspectors, are important aspects of national implementation and essential to ensuring widespread harmonized implementation of the MLC, 2006.

18 See the ILO MLC, 2006 website www.ilo.org/mlc under the heading “Monitoring and implementation tools”. In 2018, the Special Tripartite Committee of the MLC, 2006 decided to establish a subsidiary body in charge of up-dating the ILO Guidelines in order to reflect the amendments to the Code of the MLC, 2006. The new Guidelines should be published by November 2020.


19 idem.


General questions about the MLC, 2006